Ijaz Hossain Chemical Engineering Department BUET [email protected]

Greenhouse Effect

Records from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (in parts per million by volume) show how CO 2 concentrations in the atmosphere have increased since accurate records began.

Source: Keeling and Whorf 2001 in Global Environment Outlook 3 (UNEP/Earthscan Publications 2002)

The main greenhouse gases (GHGs) The Convention concerns all greenhouse gases not covered by the 1987 Montreal Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Protection of the Ozone Layer. The focus of the Kyoto Protocol is on the following six: ●

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) ● Methane (CH 4 ) ● Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) ● Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) ● Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) ● Sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) NOTE: N 2 and O are not GHGs 2

The first three are estimated to account for

50, 18 and 6 per cent,

respectively, of the overall global warming effect arising from human activities. The HFCs and PFCs are used as replacements for ozone depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) being phased out under the Montreal Protocol © UNFCCC 2003

FOSSIL FUELS

OIL GAS COAL

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was created in 1992 to deal with climate change, in particular to reduce GHG emissions. UNFCC holds meeting of negotiators from countries, and the most important meeting is known as Conference of Parties (COP) held in December of every year. In COP 3, negotiators met in Kyoto, Japan to work out a set of binding emission reduction target, and that is known as the

Kyoto Protocol.

  

Joint Implementation (JI) Emissions Trading Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) International Emissions Trading

has come about from a unique historical event, i.e., the changeover of the Soviet block from a controlled to a market economy. As a result of that many East European countries are emitting much less GHGs than prior to 1990 because their industrial activities have severely gone down. Since the base year for Kyoto Protocol is 1990, these countries have emission quotas, which they can sell to other countries that have emission reduction targets.

      The country where the project activity is located is called a host Party GHG emission reduction unit (ERU) is issued against successful verification The GHG reduction must be such that under regular activity it would not have occurred ERUs can be used to meet KP commitments Both the countries participating in JI must have emission caps implying that the total amount of emissions caps of Annex I parties will not change ERUs will come into effect after 2008

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation

What is CDM ?

Cost effective way of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission globally i.e. Reducing GHG in Developing Countries instead of in Developed Countries

HOW CDM WILL WORK?

Developed Country

Need GHG credits Too Expensive in Country

GHG credits

Developing Country

Need Money + Technology Cheap to reduce GHG $

t CO 2

What are baselines?

Baseline: scenario without CDM project

X

X 1 Project actual Project projection 2008 time – X represents avoided tons in a given time period – Actual project performance may differ from

projected

– X

1 represents CERs for the period

© UNFCCC 2003



Investment Additionality



Financial Additionality

 Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) cannot be used to finance a CDM project. This is essentially to prevent the existing development assistance from being used to purchase carbon credits. All CDM funds must be additional to the existing or future commitment of development funds 

Sustainable Development criteria

Project must not be financially viable, i.e., the project IRR should be low. Projects that can be executed without the financial support of the CDM, should be excluded. This criteria has, however, been relaxed. Therefore, if the project proponent can demonstrate that there are barriers that are preventing the project from occurring spontaneously, then it can be a CDM project.

    The sustainable development (SD) criteria attached to CDM has a curious history. The concept of developed countries buying carbon credits from developing countries was severely criticized by many, terming it as a way of avoiding responsibility in own country. The addition of the word ‘clean’ denotes that strict conditions must be met to execute a CDM project. The SD criterion was thus added to the list of checks and balances to ensure that the project did not adversely the affect the host county, and that it actually promoted sustainable development.

Annual Average CERs CDM project pipeline: > 4200 of which: --- 1882 are registered --- 115 are requesting registration > 2,900,000,000 322,569,196 > 1,670,000 16,213,606 > 50,000,000

    Good historical data is not maintained in most developing countries Because of widespread pilferage of electricity/gas and evasion of VAT, it is very difficult to get good data from private industrial and commercial establishments Due to autonomous efficiency improvements, emissions in the baseline usually decrease over time; this need to be reflected in baseline Small developing counties lack capacity to develop CDM projects because of its complicated structure

 It failed to include the largest polluter , i.e., the USA  Some countries will not achieve the stated emission reduction target  The CDM has failed to deliver the desired impetus to emissions reduction  The land use sector was totally neglected

     Expanded Program of activities (PoA) under the structure of CDM Sectoral CDM Pre-set baselines for renewable energy and biomass based projects Carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear energy Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forests Degradation (REDD)